Chapter 239: 239
The rest of the people at the rooftop are still taking shots towards the ones below but I’m focused on Darelle’s expression.
“L-let me rewind what’s left of the footage earlier…” he said.
“Hmm? What’s left?” I thought to myself.
“I’ve lost- well, you’ve lost a couple of drones when we started to drive it inside the stadium. Check this here. I’ll show you the footage from what survived first. They all went to the other buildings and the picture is clear.” he started to rewind the footage.
The footage was running at twice the speed and getting skipped a few seconds a few times when nothing seems to be happening. I’m looking at different videos at the same time and Darelle would pause the others and would bring one to regular speed if it contains something important.
It shows us first that the drones were slowly descending after the second wave of the swarm came out of their hiding spots when the explosions erupted earlier. One feed shows the inside of the Main Building of the City Hall far from where it used to be. It’s just rooms of blood and gore where each turn is just about the same following a theme. A few regular ones are roaming around and a few even started to follow the drones but failed to do so.
Almost all of the buildings were the same inside and I’m starting to think that the server located inside that I was aiming for might not be intact. However, it just makes me wonder why they all gathered at this place if they would have better options if they roamed around with their numbers.
“Wait, why am I giving advice to what they should do? Shit. If the drives from the servers here didn’t survive, Ana is the only person we could get the files from. I’m willing to cooperate with her and our partnership is good at the moment but I at least want to see one hard drive surviving.” I thought to myself.
The footage finally showed the place where the server room is located but the huge glass doors and partitions are stained with blood and we could barely see anything from our side.
“Hope they didn’t bump or crash into it or it would be bad. I wish we could see the situation from here at least.” Darelle said.
“Let’s just hope for the best. Well, we’d still actually need to go there physically so it’s fine but how about the stadium?” I asked.
Darelle gave a sigh and dismissed the other videos in playback and displayed the footage from the stadium in fullscreen. The only thing I saw earlier was the doors opening but nothing inside because of the angle. Now, however, even if it is directly in front of the opening, I could barely see anything. I could recognize barely 15 feet inside but the sunlight can’t reach farther to surmise anything. The moment the drone drove inside, to shed some light, the feed got cut off.
Another shot from another drone came but it’s the same thing. The feed got cut off before it managed to record something substantial.
I was silent.
The third one came attached with a flashlight below and it just hovered outside trying to record footage as much as it can but nothing could be seen clearly. The beam of the flashlight is not strong enough to illuminate everything.
However, it caught something.
A glimpse.
It… they’re moving really fast but their movements are different. If someone’s running straight, you’re supposed to see them upright or even slightly slanted forwards. However, the way they moved seemed to be that they’re not moving like bipedals would even if their features show that they’re humanoid. The way the drone turned revealed a few of them in random locations and their heads would turn away if their faces got shone on with the light. They don’t seem intent on going outside even if hundreds of the others have already spilled out. The drone caught a few glimpses of them but I think there’s plenty of them still inside.
“F.u.c.k.i.n.g weird, right?” Darelle said.
“Yeah. The ones inside have a few quirks. I bet we can’t lure them outside and they’re waiting for us to go inside. Let them hole in there for now while we sweep everything else outside first. They’ll see how stupid they’re decisions are if they ever did make one.” I replied.
I looked below and there’s a semi circle near the entrance where we did our work. There’s still a lot in the vicinity so I placed my IWI Tavor on the ledge as I acquired several targets within range and ended their lives. A few of them are still falling out from the windows due to the earlier ones breaking them. Some of them would immediately get killed though some would still survive. They would either stand up and start on pacing or they’d crawl their way just to have some sort of movement.
*PSSHEW*
*PSSHEW*
*PSSHEW*
*PSSHEW*
*PSSHEW*
Shot after shot resounded throughout the area but it is not because of people simply being trigger happy. Each shot is carefully placed and yet it sounds like people are mag dumping. It’s because there’s a huge number of us shooting at the same time almost simultaneously. However, there’s still a select few who get too excited while using a full auto so we’d occasionally hear a sound like the name of a purple Pocket Monster that becomes brown when it evolves.
Quite a bit of time has already passed since we’ve started to clear everything we see outside and the roadblocks. There has been zero casualties on all teams throughout. Days and days of preparation can be attributed to it and making sure no one acts recklessly. The only drawback to this operation is the amount of bullets that we used is staggering and I’m hoping it would get replenished from the resources we would be acquiring here. I started to tell everyone at the roadblocks to slowly creep inside while checking each building that is close. The goal is to check for remaining zombies still inside and the scavenging part will be carried out later.
We’re now on the final stretch and the only building that has any semblance of the bloody figures inside was the small stadium inside the People’s Park. We’ve resetted our positions and now most of my usual team are atop the rooftop of the South Supermarket with a few others. Some of them are still atop the other buildings but all our eyes are on the entrance of the stadium.
“Go in, dude.” I said through the earpiece.
“I think I won’t fit inside.” Raphael replied.
“Just crash into it. Make the entrance bigger. Don’t use lube.” I said.
“Can’t I just get a f.u.c.k.i.n.g proper reply dude?!” he exclaimed.
The Komatsu then made its way towards the entrance of the stadium and it slammed itself towards it. The smooth finish of the Komatsu is gone now since several bullets have rained on it earlier. Despite that, aside from a few of the spikes failing to retract, it is still in working condition.
*CRASH*
The initial crash took away the doors and it removed part of the walls by its side but not enough to affect the building’s structural integrity. The Komatsu reversed for a few feet and it slammed itself against the entrance to make it wider. The moment the Komatsu could go inside without any obstructions, Raphael drove inside while a few debris fell from the entrance.
A short moment passes and another hole is created from the inside. Everyone could see the claw of the Komatsu partially protruding from the other side of the wall where there is no significant damage yet.
“Dude, something’s been slamming against me. It’s making loud thuds but they can’t break through this armor. I’m gonna make a few more holes while avoiding the pillars.” Raphael said.
“Sure.” I replied.
“Bro, that Komatsu is like a cheat code here.” Jared said from my side.
“Heh, of course it is. It’s just really slow and we can’t take it far.” I replied.
“Hey, look.” Mark said.
*CRASH*
The other entrance was formed after another huge crash. Several zombies came out into view that were walking on all fours. The way they moved is very unnatural and they are slamming their fists towards the Komatsu. Their hands up to their wrists have already had its bones jutting out due to the force they’re using. Despite their efforts, it has no effect on the Komatsu whatsoever aside from staining it with their bits and pieces.
Some of them tried to get into the gaps of the wheels but it only made the condition of their arms worse. Their hands would get twisted and when they pulled against it, a portion of their arms would get twisted off along with the bones. It’s a sorry sight to see them struggle.
Our equipment made the raid towards the final stage almost anticlimactic because the hard part was taking care of hundreds of sprinters from the several projects we executed, not this one. They were easily sniped down and the Komatsu parked on the side after none of them appeared. Their numbers weren’t that great, only a few dozen and their behavior dictates that they only want to protect their territory.
“So, the ones we killed earlier were the ringleaders? If that’s the case then it’s good since things would’ve turned out differently if they could command that swarm. Better kill the leaders first then take care of the dregs later.” I thought to myself.
Being the paranoid f.u.c.k that I am, I still sent several drones inside to check the whole situation first before I sent our people in.
Turns out, it wasn’t for naught.
At the stage, there’s a small, lone figure where it’s sitting down on the ledge. On its hands is a piece of a human’s leg with several bitemarks. It’s wearing a pink outfit that seemed to be for a person practicing ballet. Its legs are dangling on the ledge and it is continuously munching on that piece of leg and the blood flowing out from it is staining its face even more.
Jared saw it from my tablet and he said, “I could take that shot.”
“Do it, so we could search the whole place. That’s the last one, right kid?” Oscar said as I nodded.
Jared took his position while I’m still glued to the screen. When Jared chambered a round, the kid inside put the leg it’s munching on down and looked at the camera of the drone hovering near it. The chunks of flesh fell from its mouth then its mouth moved.
*PSSHEW*
A hole was formed on the side of its head but I could still vividly see its last moments especially the words it mouthed towards the camera that almost no one noticed.
It was a simple word: “Hello.”